An attempt to spread the word of Agriculture through my own experiences. Inspired by Advocates for Agriculture and their story on ABC's Landline on the 14th August 2011. Might take me a while to get this page up to scratch, but it should be fun trying.

Sharing's Caring

Thank you to everybody who has shared this blog. Sharing is the way these things work, otherwise I'm justing talking to myself. If you like what you read please tweet, Facebook or email it to your mates. The more people outside our agricultural circle we can reach the better. Don't forget to have a look at the other blogs I'm following too. Everyone has a story to tell.

Not quite two
weeks ago I sent out a simple email calling for a counter rally to one being
planned against live exports on the Stirling Bridge, Fremantle on the 18th
November. I expected maybe 50 people to turn up with us to stir things up a
bit.

But apparently,
everyone has had a gutful.

The response
has knocked me for six. So while I originally intended to do this on the quiet,
it’s gone past that now. This post is purely to serve as an information point
for our little gathering.

If anything I’ve
written here, on Facebook, or on Twitter since I started this little adventure
back in 2011 has made you laugh, nod, smile or just think a little differently,
please, join with us on Sunday, 18th November.

Everyone is
welcome to come and show your support for the farmers, the truckies, the stock
agents, the yardmen, the jackaroos, jillaroos, feed mills, hay and grain
growers, feed lotters, vets, AQIS officials, shearers and all the other support
industries involved.

Thank you.

Michael Trant

Below are the details emailed to everyone. This post will be updated as required, with most recent info at the top, just below this introduction.

14-11-12 UPDATE - Last week some rubbish was posted on the Stop Live
Exports page, threatening their protesters, by our some of our supposed
supporters. I was only made aware of this yesterday. The Stop Live Exports
organiser has taken those threat to Police, and has my support in doing so. Some
of the comments were downright
disgusting.We
will be doing everything we can to prevent any problems, and having spoken to
their organiser, they are doing the same. Both parties will be filming, with
theirs setting cameras up both ends of the bridge to capture vehicle plates
should anyone try a drive by egging or similar, which was one of the threats.
Police will have a presence.

If
you know of anyone, heard anything, even a whisper, planning something like
this, tell them not to come. I dont care how much these people annoy you, or
what they say or do to provoke you. If someone causes trouble or reacts to
provocation, I and others will do everything we can to assist
Police.

If
you think you can’t control yourself, don’t come. We don’t need any bad press,
God knows we see enough of that already, and it’s my
bloody name on everything.

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has
run with this idea. I am overwhelmed with the support and feedback. I had
originally expected about 50 of us to turn up to fly the flag.

That looks like being blown out the
water, we have over 100 confirmed by email, I’ve heard of buses being organised
from Northampton, Morawa, Three Springs and Bunbury, plus everyone seems to
know someone who is coming. So to keep things on track, plans have changed
slightly.

The main concern for everyone is a
confrontation between the opposing groups. The last thing we need is for
someone to lose their cool and do something silly. The Police have been in
contact and are concerned of this, and while they have no problem with us
exercising our right to protest, they will be very quick to act should things
turn ugly. If you are planning on turning up looking for a stoush, don’t
bother. The last thing we want to do is turn off the general public, so under
no circumstance do we block the bridge, traffic or anything like that. Aside
from a bit of jeers, I’m not expecting any trouble, but it pays to remember
some of these people have no problems with breaking the law in the name of
their cause.

For this reason we will not
be on the Bridge.

Merv Cowan Park is the muster point. BE
THERE BY 9.00 am AT THE LATEST. A sausage sizzle is being organised for
early birds, and the Left Bank does breakfast too. From 9.00 to 9.30 we plan to
have a few speakers, then by 9.45am we need to assembled along the river
foreshore in front of the Left Bank Cafe, ready to attract the medias and
traffics attention away from the protesters on the bridge.

We will be bringing flyers and placards
for people to wear and hand out to the public. After the mornings gathering, we
may head down to the Esplanade and hand out more flyers and info and basically
engage the general public a bit more. We’ve made the effort to get down there,
may as well make the most of it.

What can
you do?

Spread the
word. – Download
the flyer from here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6yb29gegz60y393/x_ayeLjMPq
to print out and pin in your local pub, shop, sporting ground – anywhere people
will see it. Originally I asked for this to be kept off the social media sites,
and best to my knowledge, you have, so thank you. But now tweet and share the
hell out of this on Facebook and Twitter. 6PR got hold of it on Wednesday, so
the cats out of the bag now. I will be talking to as many media as I can in the
upcoming week. Be careful not to exaggerate the expected
numbers. If people expect a thousand and only a few hundred turn up, we’ll look
silly. If a thousand do turn up, great!

As many non farming supporters we can
get, the better. Reach out to the wider community.

If you think you are too busy with harvest,
consider that the export depots and ships take thousands of tonnes of feed
grain out of the market, none of which would be required should the industry be
halted.

Organise a
bus. – Get a
group together, find a bus and head down.

Accommodation

- We are in the process of booking a
100 bed dormitory at Woodland Point, with another 60 bed available if numbers
require. These are basic 10 bed to a dorm, with two unisex amenities blocks.
There is a BBQ area, but no kitchen facilities in the rooms. The address is
below. If you would like to make use of this facility, please contact Kristie
on 99430649, or if no answer, Raelene on 99812969.

This coastal recreation camp is located at the end of O'Kane Court,
Munster, on Woodman Pt. in Cockburn Sound, just eight kilometres South of
Fremantle - a 35-minute drive from the centre of Perth and a 45-minute drive
from the domestic airport.

Woodman Point Recreation Camp is located south of Fremantle in the south
metropolitan region of Perth, Western Australia. It is accessible by car and
bus along Cockburn Road.

There has been a very generous offer of
camping space available in Oldbury, east of Rockingham. Pill and Stan Lewis
have 5 acres at 27 JillyJilly Close. The turnoff is on the south side of Orton
Road, just West of the Orton and King Road intersection. This is only a new
road, and isn’t on the map. Please ring them on 9525 1317. Thankyou to Pill and Stan.

What to bring

Signs / banners – More the better. We pinched the idea from the Stop
live exports movement for A4 cards to wear stating who we are and that we
support live export. Download these https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6yb29gegz60y393/x_ayeLjMPq
and print them out and bring them along. If you can make a big banner, do so.
Be clever with your message. We need to show this affects families. The anti
movement is very careful to use the term “industry,” as if it’s only big
business being hurt. “Live export educated my children” “Live export supports
my family,” that sort of thing. Avoid activist bashing and the “without us you
starve” line, it is confrontational and puts people offside.

Water – It may be hot and we’re not sure what is available. Later on the Left
Bank, Trade Winds is close by and so is Little Creatures Brewery.

Flyers – Download the fact sheets about Live export, some from industry bodies,
some made up by volunteers. There is an online team across the country behind
us, and they are doing a lot of the homework.

Cameras – We want as much of this recorded as we can, to saturate the web space
after the event. We’ve all seen the photos of previous ban rallies, lets get
ours out there.

Where and When?

Merv Cowan Park, on top of the hill above the Left Bank Cafe. Be there
by 9am at the latest, the Anti export movements bridge rally is 9.45 for
a 10.00am start. They are only there long enough for some good photos. We
suggest you get there as early as you can, as parking is limited. PLEASE DO NOT
PARK IN THE LEFT BANKS CARPARK, as they serve breakfast.

Please DONT bring your kids, the last event you attended the Live Export Farmers were shoving very distressed little kids in the faces of protestors and it was an awful spectacle. BE responsible parents and DO not bring children to this.

Anna, not sure if you read all the above through or not, but the two crowds will be seperated by about 100 feet of air, concete and a river. Only way they will meet if someone comes over especailly. We ask our side stays away from theirs.

Good luck to Michael and the WA farmers, thank you for putting the "Farmers/graziers" story out there, the positive impact of Live Export, far outweighs the negative. I believe farmers/graziers are the REAL animal welfare peope, so from North Qld, we salute you and support you, wishing our family who is impacted could be there.Robyn, 2nd generation family member who was educated off the land, my children are the 3rd generation.

Sounds like you're doing a great job Michael, hope it all goes really well & that stacks of people make the effort to attend, regardless of how busy they are. Would be there with bells on if not living on a diagonally opposite side of the continent...

All the best Michael and all the crew. Wish we were there in body but it will have to be in spirit. Thanks for supporting our Aussie Farmers and all the business who rely on them. Go you good thing. From SW Qld

Congratulations Michael,I went to my first ever protest today and I was so pleased that I was there. We are proud to be farmers and it's so important to have our say.Well done for motivating rural Western Australia, awesome!Sonia AddisCranbrook, WA

Well done everyone who attended Sunday's rally! Now we must continue our plight- not just to support live export but for everything we deserve but don't get especially for decent prices for what we produce! We need letters - every day we need letters to to editor of the Wsst Australian as well as using social media. We need a constant stream of good letters because city people need to know & understand what we do and that we're doing it for our whole country not just for our own benefit. Education & awareness is how to get the word out there. Farmers! Be united; stick together and say what you want or at least what you need to continue life on the land. Australia needs Australian farmers & the world needs our produce.

Agchatoz

About Me

I farm in Geraldton, West Australia with my wife Gemma and her parents. We run a export depot for sheep and goats on one property, a bit of crop and damara sheep on another, and Gemma's parents run the damara sheep station near Yalgoo, about 200kms east of Geraldton.